Turbomachines such as wind turbines, gas turbines, steam turbines, pumps, fans, generators, motors, and other forms of commercial equipment frequently include shafts, blades, and other rotating components. It is known in the art to install one or more sensors on the rotating components to measure various characteristics of those components in order to control, monitor, and/or enhance the operation of the rotating components. For example, sensors that measure temperature, velocity, stress, strain, vibrations, and/or other characteristics of the rotating components may allow for early detection of abnormalities, adjustments to repair or maintenance schedules, and/or other actions to enhance operations.
Various slip ring and telemetry systems exist in the art for transmitting the analogue sensor data from the rotating components to stator components for further analysis. Conventionally, analogue signals from the sensors are routed via wires to individual slip or conductive rings positioned concentrically along a rotatable center bore or shaft portion of a slip ring assembly. Stationary contact arms or brushes then provide a signal path for routing the signals from the rotating contact or slip rings to a controller, data processor or the like. However, the volume of analog data that can be transferred through each conductive ring is relatively limited compared to the number of sensors that may exist on each rotating component.
A telemetry system, on the other hand, may include circuitry on the rotating component that packages the sensor data into a compressed data stream. A transmitter on the rotating component may then transmit the compressed data stream from the rotating component to a nearby stationary loop antenna. In this manner, each transmitter in the telemetry system may transmit larger volumes of sensor data than could be transmitted through slip rings. Although telemetry systems generally provide increased data transmission capabilities compared to conventional slip ring systems, telemetry systems also have their limitations such as costs and/or effects that are inherently present with rotating components such as vibrations, electromagnetic interference that may result in signal interference.
As a result, continued improvements in systems and methods for transferring data from rotating instrumentation of a turbomachine such as a gas turbine to a stationary data acquisition system would be useful.